Comparative evaluation of short-term stress of Cd(II), Hg(II), Pb(II), As(III) and Cr(VI) on anammox granules by batch test

Batch experiments were conducted to investigate the short-term effects of Cd(II), Hg(II), Pb(II), As(III) and Cr(VI) on anammox activity, which are considered to be the top 5 toxic heavy metals in China. The IC50 values of Cd(II), Hg(II), Pb(II) and Cr(VI) were calculated to be 7.00, 2.33, 10.40 and 9.84 mg/L, respectively, while As(III) caused only 29.67% decrease in SAA even at the dosage of 60 mg/L. The evaluation of metal concentrations in liquid and sludge revealed that anammox biomass hold a high heavy-metal accumulation ability, which was hypothesized to be the key reason of activity inhibition. The functional groups possessed by anammox biomass and the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) might contribute to the attachment of heavy metals. Especially, microbial reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) inside the granules was discovered, which was considered to relieve the Cr(VI) inhibition under concentrations lower than 8.96 mg/L.